


pillows

by infinitebees



Series: the angel's share [1]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 11:09:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12253134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinitebees/pseuds/infinitebees
Summary: You didn’t used to own this many pillows – you’re almost positive of that. Yet here they are, having seemingly materialized in your shop one day some time after Asra came to live with you with his myriad secrets and inscrutable smiles. You suppose it’s an improvement, except for late at night when you can’t be bothered to put light into your hands and end up tripping over them on your way to fetch a glass of water.





	pillows

“You’ve been at that for hours, you know,” says Asra from his formidable pile of pillows on the floor. 

You didn’t used to own this many pillows – you’re almost positive of that. Yet here they are, having seemingly materialized in your shop one day some time after Asra came to live with you with his myriad secrets and inscrutable smiles. You suppose it’s an improvement, except for late at night when you can’t be bothered to put light into your hands and end up tripping over them on your way to fetch a glass of water.

When you glance back at him from the heavy tome you’ve been reading, eyes trying to refocus on something that isn’t something that can only be described as magic anatomy, he adds, “It’ll only make less sense the longer you puzzle at it. Sometimes you have to wait for it to come together in your dreams.”

You roll your eyes, but even that makes the room shift in a way it definitely  _doesn’t_  usually do, just proving his point. When you talk, your voice feels alien to you from lack of use. “I think I’m getting it, though.” And you turn back to the tome to find you’ve completely lost your place on the page. 

You don’t remember quite why it was so important for you to read this book. Someone you were trying to help? Something you were trying to learn? You don’t know how you even got so absorbed in the reading but here you are, well into the evening with the candle burning low, feeling Asra’s eyes burning into your back as you try to find your place again. You find it, eventually, but when you do a terrible headache starts up again between your eyes. You’ve been fighting it for some time, but suddenly it’s bad enough to draw a wince from you, making Asra call “I told you it’s no good to keep reading that. You’ll strain your eyes.”

He yawns loudly –  _luxuriously_ , even – and you feel your shoulders slump at the very sound, damn him. “Come onnn, there’s plenty of room for you,” he purrs, and you hear him shift and know he’s just curled up the way Faust does when she’s especially content (did he get that from her, or her from him?). Suddenly sleep seems very appealing.

When you settle into the makeshift bed beside him, Asra throws his arm over you and pulls you close. You catch a glimpse of his expression as he does it, just before he hides his face in your shoulder. There’s something there, a sort of trepidation you aren’t used to seeing on him but have noticed in him lately whenever he gets close to you, whenever he reaches for you before apparently thinking better of it. It makes you want to turn his face up towards yours, to try to evoke one of his smiles – he has so many different kinds, you think – but instead you settle into his warmth. He’s never been very good with questions, after all.

You’ve been dozing for some time before you hear Asra whisper something you can’t make out. But it sounds very sad, even as it clears that awful feeling from your head once and for all. You want to ask him what he said, but sleep drags you under faster than you can push it away, and before long you’re lulled under by his body close to yours, by the gentle sound of his breathing beside you.


End file.
